The Shakti Peethas (Sanskrit: शक्ति पीठ, Śakti Pīṭha, seat of Shakti) are places of worship consecrated to the goddess Shakti or Sati, the female principal...They are sprinkled throughout the Indian subcontinent.....This goddess Shakti, the Goddess of power is the complete incarnation of Adi Shakti, has three chief manifestations, as Durga, Goddess of strength and valour, as Mahakali, goddess of destruction of evil and as Goddess Gowri, the goddess of benevolence....There are 51 Shakti Peeth linking to the 51 alphabets in Sanskrit. Each temple has shrines for Shakti and and Kalabhairava, and mostly Shakti and Kalabharava in different Shakti Peeth have different names..... there are 56 other famous Peethas recognised by religious texts. According to the Pithanirnaya Tantra the 56 peethas are scattered all over India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and Pakistan. The Shivacharita besides listing 52 maha-peethas, speaks about 26 more upa-peethas. "...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti_Peethas

"Goddess Durga.....also called Divine Mother.....is also called by many other names, such as Parvati, Ambika, and Kali In the form of Parvati, She is known as the divine spouse of Lord Shiva and is the mother of Her two sons, Ganesha and Karttikeya, and daughter Jyoti....the symbolism associated with Goddess Durga: A tiger symbolizes unlimited power. Durga riding a tiger indicates that She possesses unlimited power and uses it to protect virtue and destroy evil. The eighteen arms of Durga signify that She possesses combined power of the nine incarnations of Lord Vishnu that have appeared on the earth at different times in the past. The tenth incarnation, the Kalkin (a man on a white horse), is still to come."

"The list of Shakti Pithas differ in various religious texts. Many mention Vimala or Jagannath temple complex as a Shakti Pitha, and calls the location by various names. In the Kalika Purana, four Pithas (centres of Tantrism) are mentioned, corresponding to the four cardinal directions. The Oddiyana or Uddiyana in the west hosts the temple of Katyayini (identified with Vimala) and her consort Jagannath. The Hevajara Tantra, which has a similar list, also mentions Katyayini as the Bhairavi and Jagannath as the Bhairava in the Pitha of Udra (Odra)."....Sircar, Dines Chandra (1998). The Śākta Pīṭhas. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 978-81-208-0879-9.

Shakta Pitha Bhattarika of Badamba in the district of Cuttack

Katyayini hi:कात्यायिनी is the sixth form amongst the Navadurga or the nine forms of Hindu goddess Parvati or (Shakti), worshipped during the Navratri celebrations..... this is the second name given for Parvati in amarakosha, the Sanskrit lexicon. (uma katyayani gaouri kali haimavathi iiswari) In Shaktism she is associated with the fierce forms of Shakti or Durga,a Warrior goddess, which also includes Bhadrakali and Chandika, and traditionally she is associated with the colour red, as with Goddess Durga, the primordial form of Shakti, a fact also mentioned in Patanjali's Mahabhashya on Pāṇini, written in 2nd BCE.She is first mentioned in the Taittiriya Aranyaka part of the Krishna Yajurveda. Skanda Purana mentions her being created out of the spontaneous anger of Gods, which eventually led to slaying the demon, Mahishasura, mounted of the lion given to her by Goddess Gauri. Her exploits are described in the Devi-Bhagavata Purana and Devi Mahatmyam, part of the Markandeya Purana attributed to sage Markandeya Rishi, who wrote it in Sanskrit ca. 400-500 CE. Over a period of time, her presence was also felt in Buddhist and Jain texts and several Tantric text, especially the Kalika Purana (10th century), which mentions Uddiyana or Odradesa (Odisha), as the seat of Goddess Katyayani and Lord Jagannath.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyayini

"The Shree Vajreshwari Devi Mandir is a Hindu temple dedicated to the goddess Vajreshvari, located in the town Nagarkot, in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India..... The Kangra Fort is situated nearby...... The left breast of Sati fell at this spot, thus making it a Shakti Peeth.....The original temple was built by the Pandavas at the time of Mahabharatha. Legend says that one day Pandavas saw Goddess Durga in their dream in which she told them that she is situated in the Nagarkot village.....

"In the first half of the 1st millennium, the Kashmir region became an important centre of Hinduism and later of Buddhism; later still, in the ninth century, Kashmir Shaivism arose....the tantric non-dual system of Kashmir Shaivism is a close cousin to Tibetan Tantric Buddhism.".....http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2011/02/bg-207-the-tantric-cousins/#sthash.TrNAFagf.dpuf

"The Buddhist Mauryan emperor Ashoka is often credited with having founded the old capital of Kashmir, Shrinagari, now ruins on the outskirts of modern Srinagar. Kashmir was long to be a stronghold of Buddhism....Central Asian Buddhist monks are recorded as having visited the kingdom.....

"... the birth place of Garab Dorje not simply as 'Uddiyana' but as being close to Lake Kutra in the region of Dhanakosha; thus indicating present day North-eastern Kashmir (now Pakistan) - a region right in the middle between Chitral, Gilgit and Swat. ....The Words of My Perfect Teacher, pages 338-339

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".....the concept of Uddiyana shifts away from the Swat Valley to a larger region: in fact the whole area of mountain ranges (and mountain peoples) from North-eastern Afghanistan to the Kailas range in the far West of Tibet..... in 1994, Robert Thurman cautiously formulates in his glossary to the Bardo Thödol that Uddyana (Tib., U rgyan) is a "Buddhist country in northwestern India (perhaps present-day Pakistan or Afghanistan)". [1994, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, page 273]....http://yoniversum.nl/dakini/uddiyana.html

“Starting about the 3rd century, Buddhism began to grow and spread outside India, adjusting to local cultures and the varying conditions of different countries. Buddhism began to take root in different countries in Asia as they came in contact with Buddhism from the early 2nd century B.C.E. Buddhism became nearly extinct in India, the country of its origin....a major reason for so many Indian Buddhist sages coming to Central Tibet from Kashmir, and notably, the famous Padmasambhava from Uddiyana, was the simple fact that Tibet then ruled much of this region. Nothing is really reported concerning Padmasambhava’s life in Kashmir. He lived, some say, with wandering yogis and sadhus, in exile from his homeland. Others report that it was during this period that he acquired knowledge and skill in various crafts. In Kashmir he earned the name Sthiramati, ‘the Youthful Genius......’.... Dharma Fellowship of H.H. the Gyalwa Karmapa, History of Buddhism

"....between “720 and 726 the King of Baltistan moved his seat to Gilgit out of fear of the Tibetan advance.... of tribute from the King of Kapisa in 748 ascertains that by that date Uddiyana had become a vassal state....King Lalitaditya-Muktapida, ruled between approx. 725 and 756 C.E.....as it was being built up, it was already being ravaged by raiding Tibetans, who were then the main power in Central Asia and scarcely yet converted to Buddhism.”...http://www.rinpoche.com/stories/ladakh.htm#_ftnref5

"Öd Sung, which means “Protected by Light......restored many Buddhist shrines...The Kingdom of Guge played a decisive role on the Tibetan Plateau after the fall of the Tubo Dynasty. It was called the heartland of Tibet; Yarlung and Lhasa were thought of as outlying villages or towns...The Kingdom of Guge lasted 16 generations...The ruins of the former capital of Guge kingdom are located at Tsaparang in the Sutlej valley, not far from Mount Kailash....Later, King Yeshe Öd inaugurated the second diffusion of Buddhism in the western reaches of Tibet, which was called “the backbone of Tibetan Buddhism.” He sent 21 youths to Kashmir to revive the knowledge of Buddhism after its fateful destruction."....http://www.rinpoche.com/

".....Martand Sun Temple was dedicated to Surya (Sun) god and is now in ruins. The ruins of the temple are located near Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir.Martand is another Sanskrit name for Hindu Sun-god.....The Sun Temple at Martand in Jammu and Kashmir....The Martand temple is one of the important archaeological sites of the country. It was built around 500 AD. This temple has the typical Aryan structure as was present in Aryan Kashmir. ....built during 725-756 AD.The foundation of the temple is said to have been around 370-500 AD......blended the Gandharan, Gupta, Chinese, Roman, Syrian-Byzantine and Greek forms of architecture.....Srinagar is 53 km from Anantnag....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martand_Sun_Temple

A photo of ruins of the Surya Temple at Martand was taken by John Burke in 1868.

Amarnath cave is a very famous shrine in Kashmir......It is dedicated to Shiva. The cave is situated at an altitude of 3,888 m (12,756 ft), about 141 km (88 mi) from Srinagar....The shrine is considered to be one of the holiest shrines in Hinduism. The cave is surrounded by snowy mountains....ice stalagmite Shiva Linga .....the legendary king Aryaraja (ascribed fictional dates 32BCE-17CE) who used to worship a lingam formed of ice in Kashmir.

"When the king of Tibet, Drigum Tsanpo (Gri-gum btsan-po), was killed because of his persecution of the Bonpos, it became necessary to prevent the restless spirit of the murdered king, which had become a gshin or restless ghost, from doing mischief among the people. Therefore, three Bonpo practitioners were invited from Kashmir (Kha-che), Gilgit (Bru-sha), and Zhang-zhung, respectively, in order to perform the appropriate funeral rites to set the spirit to rest. This was because the local priests did not know how to do this. Such rites are known as 'Dur. All three of these Bonpos were foreigners from countries which lay to the west of Tibet. One of these Bonpos, presumably the one from Zhang-zhung, propitiated the deities Ge-khod (the patron deity of Zhang-zhung), Khyung (Garuda), and Me-lha (the god of fire). Thereby he was able to fly through the sky on his drum and divine mineral and metal deposits hidden beneath the earth. The second Bonpo, presumably the one from Gilgit, was skilled in divination and could foretell the future by means of the knots and threads, a practice known as ju-thig, and the use of scapula (sog dmar). Moreover, he made inspired oracular utterances (lha bka'). This would appear to locate the origin of this method of divination in Gilgit. The third Bonpo from Kashmir, a land famous for its Sanskrit learning among both Buddhists and Shaivites, was an expert in conducting the funeral ceremonies. Previously there had existed no philosophy of Bon in Tibet, but now Bon became mixed up with the Shaivite doctrines of the Tirthikas, that is, the Hindus of Kashmir, and therefore this became known as Deviant Bon (mu-stegs dbang-phyug-pa'i grub-mtha' 'khyar-ba bon)."....http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/dzogchen.html?showall=1

Monday, July 29, 2013

"Oddiyana & Shambala......"In one of the commentaries on the sutras I found a very interesting explanation. It said that there was a kingdom of Oddiyana, in the north west of India, which had two parts – one was the main kingdom which was large and the other was governed by a prince of Oddiyana and was called Shambala, or Sambala, more or less the same pronunciation. It showed very well how the situation of Oddiyana and Shambala was.....we say that Kalachakra was very widespread and existed in Shambala. But when we look historically, we can understand that Shambala was the origin of Kalachakra. There is no particular explanation saying that Buddha Shakyamuni manifested in Shambala and transmitted Kalachakra......Shambala existed as a place, as a country, on this globe. Oddiyana also definitely existed; it wasn’t just an imaginary idea of paradise.".....http://www.melong.com/en/teachings/54-karma-emotions-and-the-six-lokas.html?start=3

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"This empowerment attracted the Kulika ruler of Shambhala, a Kingdom near Oddiyana, to attend as its honored recipient...."Treasures of the Sakya Lineage: Teachings from the Masters".....http://books.google.com

"The Kalachakra was composed between the end of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth centuries CE, as a composite of different portions compiled in several areas in the region spanning eastern Afghanistan, Oddiyana, and Kashmir.".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala

Saturday, July 27, 2013

"Much of the Trungpa Vidyadhara's work, especially in the last ten years of his life, was dedicated to propagating what he called "enlightened society," which would help the world in many ways and, at the same time, provide a home for buddhadharma in the West. As a model, he pointed to the Kingdom of Shambhala, an ancient (some say mythical, some say real, 'most CCL....could care less') Kingdom of Central Asia ruled by a lineage of enlightened monarchs.".....http://chronicleproject.com/biography.html

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900 BC....(Tib. Dawa Sangpo) c. 900 to 876 BC....Suchandra, Dawa Zangpo (878-876 BC?) "Good Moon" (Tibetan)
.....In 878 BC he constructed a three dimensional mandala of Kalachakra....... "Note: the Kalachakra calculations put the life of Shakyamuni Buddha quite a bit earlier than is generally accepted, and the Tibetans produced a number of divergent calculations of the dates given here. Also, many of the names of the kings are often wrongly Sanskritized (back-translated from the Tibetan) in Western publications."...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Shambhala

564 BC......Cyrus The Great (Cyrus II, Kourosh in Persian, Kouros in Greek)..... (580-529 BC) was the first Achaemenid Emperor. He founded Persia by uniting the two original Iranian Tribes- the Medes and the Persians.

340 BC.....Chandragupta Maurya (340 BC – 298 BC) was the founder of the Mauryan Empire and the first emperor to unify India into one state. Grandfather of Ashoka....A medieval inscription represents the Maurya clan as belonging to the solar race of Kshatriyas.

329 BC.....Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great was based in Balkh in 329 BC

320 BC....Bindusara Maurya (c. 320 BC – 272 BC) was emperor of the Maurya Empire from 298 BC – 272 BC. During his reign, the empire expanded southwards. He had two well-known sons, Susima and Ashoka. The Greeks called him Amitrochates or Allitrochades - the Greek transliteration for the Sanskrit word 'Amitraghata'

285 BC.....Diodotus I.....Diodotus I Soter (Greek: Διόδοτος Α' ὁ Σωτήρ) (c. 285 BC – c. 239 BC) was Seleucid satrap of Bactria....The Hellenistic kings of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in Bactria & Gandhara, today's northern Afghanistan. Their reign spans the period from 250 BCE to 125 BCE.....The Greco-Bactrian kingdom was succeeded in northerwestern India by the Indo-Greek Kingdom....Greek King or Mauryan Emperor Ashoka?.....Both lived in the same era. Both died at the same date...

274 BC....EMPEROR ASHOKA....273 - 232 BC....Ashoka was anointed the new emperor or ruler of the Mauryan Empire in 274 BCE.

240 BC.....Antiochus Nikator....Antiochus I Nikator of Bactria was possibly a Graeco-Bactrian king of the dynasty of Diodotus I, who ruled for some period between 240 - 220 BCE.

200 BC........Demetrius I of Bactria....Demetrius I (Greek: ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΣ, Persian: ‎/Pashto: دیمتریوس بلخی‎) was a Bactrian king (reigned c. 200–180 BC) of Gandhara. He was the son of Euthydemus and succeeded him around 200 BC, after which he conquered extensive areas in what now is eastern Iran thus creating an Indo-Greek kingdom far from Hellenistic Greece. He was never defeated in battle and was posthumously qualified as the Invincible (Aniketos)

185 BC......Antimachus I...Anthimachus I Theos (known as Antimakha in Indian sources) was one of the Greco-Bactrian kings, generally dated from around 185 BC to 170 BC....He was king of an area covering parts of Bactria and probably also Arachosia in southern Afghanistan

174 BC.......Apollodotus I...Apollodotus I Soter (Greek: Απολλόδοτος ο Σωτήρ, "Apollodotus the Saviour") was an Indo-Greek king between 180 BCE and 160 BCE or between 174 and 165 BCE

170 BC......Eucratides....Eucratides I Megas (reigned c. 170–145 BCE) was one of the most important Greco-Bactrian kings....."Around the same time, two great men started to rule: Mithridates among the Parthians, and Eucratides among the Bactrians" Justin XLI,6

170 BC.......Antimachus II...Antimachus II Nikephoros "The Victorious" was an Indo-Greek king. He ruled on a vast territory from the Hindu-Kush to the Punjab around 170 BCE.

165 BC......Menander...Menander I Soter "The Saviour" (known as Milinda in Indian Pali sources) was the Indo-Greek king (165 BC-130 BC) who established a large empire in the South Asia and became a patron of Buddhism. Menander was born in the Caucasus Asia, and was initially a king of Bactria...

170 BC.....Plato of Bactria....Plato was a Greco-Bactrian king who reigned for a short time in southern Bactria or the Paropamisade during the mid 2nd century BCE. The style of Plato's coins suggests that he was a relative — most likely a brother since Plato is a middle-aged man on his coins — of Eucratides the Great, whose rise to power is dated to around 170–165 BCE.

159 BC....."Manjushrí Kírti (Tib. Rigdan Jampel Dakpa) is said to have been born in 159 BCE and ruled over Shambhala.....Manju Yashas/Manjushrikirti/Manjughoshikirti (Skt), Jampäl Dragpa (Tib)(Jamyang Drag(Tib)) (276 - 176 BC) The Renowned and Glorious Gentle One .......The 8th king, Manjushrikirti was an incarnation of Manjushri and he put the Kalachakra teachings in a condensed and simplified form, called the "Sri Kalachakra". He founded a second line of 25 Kings. He also converted a group of non-Buddhist Brahman priests of Shambala to Buddhism and gave them the Kalachakra initiation to unite all inhabitants into one "vajra family" - or family of tantric practitioners.

130 BC......"Zhang Qian (Chinese explorer ...c 130 BCE) ......Ta-hia [Bactria] is more than 2000 li to the southwest of Ta-yuan, on the south bank of the K'ui-shui [Oxus]. The people have fixed abodes and live in walled cities and regular houses like the people of Ta-yuan. The population of Ta-hia may amount to more than a million. Their capital is called Balka..... a number of Buddhist religious centers flourish near the town which evidently serves as a pilgrimage center for leaders from far away.....north of the K'ui-shui [Oxus] and made it the court of their king."......
http://mrgoethals.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/5/4/16542680/world_history_lesson_20_-_afro eurasian_trade_patterns_before_600_ce_primary_sources.pdf

100 AD....King Kanishka of the Kushan Empire (its capital, Bagram, is situated slightly east of Bamian) ruled over Central Asia from 78-144 A.D. and is revered as a patron of Buddhism. His kingdom extended from Bukhara in the west to Patna in the Ganges Valley in the east, from the Pamirs in the north to central India in the south. Contact between Kanishka and the Chinese in Central Asia may have inspired the transmission of Indian ideas, particularly Buddhism, to China, where it first appeared in the 2nd century A.D. Kanishka had convened the Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir that marked the formal rise of Mahayana Buddhism in Tibet, Central Asia, and China."......http://www.rinpoche.com/stories/tibet1.htm

644 AD...."Based on the account of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, who visited in AD 644, it seems that in later times Kapisa was part of a kingdom ruled by a Buddhist kshatriya king holding sway over ten neighboring states, including Lampaka, Nagarahara, Gandhara, and Banu...."Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang 602-664) writes that "the king of Kapisa is Kshatriya by caste. He is of shrewd character (nature) and being brave and determined, he has brought into subjection the neighboring countries, some ten of which he rules....Hiuen Tsang clearly addresses the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya and not a Tu-kiue/Tu-kue (Turk) "......Si-Yu-KI V1: Buddhist Records of the Western World, Edition 2006, p 54-55, Hiuen Tsiang.

698 AD...."In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation. Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they contin­ued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA actually came under Moslem domination.".....Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje....http://www.dharmafellowship.org

700 AD....."Phrom Ge-sar was the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE) "King of Khurasan'.......the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana..... in 739, Tegin Shah abdicated the throne of Gandhara in favour of his son, Fu-lin-chi-p'o (also known as Fromo Kesaro, the Bactrian form of his name).........this victory occurred during the Reign of Fromo Kesaro (739-746 AD) and may have contributed to his transformation in later historical tradition into the Tibetan national hero Phrom Ge-sar, whose figure still survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara...The ancient coins read in Bactrian script: "The Glory Increased! The Majestic Sovereign!".. The territory was defined by natural boundaries: the Hindu Kush mountain range ... Beyond the foothills north of Gandhara was the ancient region of Udayana...".

720 AD....Kingdom of Oddiyana.......East/Southeast of Balkh....embracing parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and even Western Tibet (Zhang-zhung)." [John Myrdhin Reynolds1996, The Golden Letters. Snow Lion Publications]......homeland of both the Vajrayana and Dzogchen teachings, and is said to be the land where Garab Dorje, Vairotsana, Padmasambhava and Tilopa, amongst others, received the transmissions of Dzogchen......inhabited by gentle people often clothed in white.....in 720 A.D., the T'ang Annals state that the Emperor sent ambassadors to Uddiyana to confer the investiture on the new king........Uddiyana is not an invisible, celestial buddha field where people cannot go. This is a buddha field where fortunate people can visit. In fact, there are five holy places like this known as “The Five Vajrayana or Tantrayana Sources,” places where Vajrayana teachings are preserved and taught. Uddiyana is one such realm, and it is said that it is located somewhere in what is now known as Pakistan. Many great masters of Tibet, as well as scholars of China and India, have visited Uddiyana, the source of Tantrayana teachings.".........The Life of Tilopa.....HH 17th Gaylwa Karmapa.....Translator: Ringu Tulku Rinpoche.....http://www.kagyu.org/ktd/densal/archives/1801/hhtilopa.php

870 AD...."The Shahis of Kabul/Gandhara are generally divided into the two eras of the so-called Buddhist-Shahis and the so-called Hindu-Shahis, with the change-over thought to have occurred sometime around AD 870....(Katorman or Lagaturman) of the last king of the so-called first Shahi line of Kabul/Kapisa ....

"870 A.D. marks the first time that the KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA actually came under Moslem domination.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

Friday, July 26, 2013

"I arrived in Tokharistan (Tuhuoluo-guo). The home city of the king is called Balkh. At this time the troops of the Arabs are there and they occupy it. Its King, Wives and Court was forced to flee one month's journey to the east and lives in Badakhshan. Now Balkh belongs to the Arabs' domain."....Huichao.... 726 AD

Hyecho (704–787 CE), Sanskrit: Prajñāvikram; Hui Chao in Chinese Pinyin, was a Korean Buddhist monk...wrote a travelogue in Chinese named Wang ocheonchukguk jeon (往五天竺國傳) which means, "Memoir of the pilgrimage to the five kingdoms of India.".....It took Hyecho approximately four years to complete his journey. The travelogue contains much information on local diet, languages, climate, cultures, and political situations."

During his journey through the lands south of the Hindu Kush in around 726 CE, the Korean pilgrim Huichao stayed for some time at the court of the Kabul Shah, who may well have been "Khorasan Tegin Shah". Huichao recorded that Kabul and Zabul were then ruled by Turkic kings, who were Buddhists, and that the King of Kabul was supposed to have been the uncle of the ruler of Zabul.".....http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase14?language=en

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"Phrom Ge-sar was the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE) "King of Khurasan'.......the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana..... in 739, Tegin Shah abdicated the throne of Gandhara in favour of his son, Fu-lin-chi-p'o (also known as Fromo Kesaro, the Bactrian form of his name).........this victory occurred during the Reign of Fromo Kesaro (739-746 AD) and may have contributed to his transformation in later historical tradition into the Tibetan national hero Phrom Ge-sar, whose figure still survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara...The ancient coins read in Bactrian script: "The Glory Increased! The Majestic Sovereign!".. The territory was defined by natural boundaries: the Hindu Kush mountain range ... Beyond the foothills north of Gandhara was the ancient region of Udayana...".

"the Korean pilgrim Huichao...he continued north, where he visited Lumbini (present-day Nepal), Kashmir, the Arabs. Hyecho left India following the Silk Road towards the west, via Agni or Karashahr, to China where the account ends in 729 CE......referred to three kingdoms lying to the northeast of Kashmir which were under the suzerainty of the Tibetans…. The country is narrow and small, and the mountains and valleys very rugged. There are monasteries and monks, and the people faithfully venerate the Three Jewels. As to the kingdom of Tibet to the East, there are no monasteries at all and the Buddha's teaching is unknown... in the early eighth century the region of modern Ladakh was under Tibetan suzerainty, but that the people were of non-Tibetan stock."......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyecho

"The travelogue was lost for many years until a fragment of it was rediscovered by Paul Pelliot in the Dunhuang grotto in China in 1908..."

"Wang ocheonchukguk jeon.....; "An account of travel to the five Indian kingdoms"...... is a travelogue by Buddhist monk Hyecho, who traveled from Korea to India, in the years 723 - 727/728 CE.......Written in Classical Chinese, the lingua franca of East Asia at the time, the work was long thought to be lost. However, a manuscript turned up among the Dunhuang manuscripts during the early 20th century. It was bought by French explorer and archaeologist Paul Pelliot in 1908, and is now owned by the National Library of France......The manuscript scroll contains 5,893 classical Chinese characters in 227 lines. It originally consisted of three volumes, however volume one and later section of volume three are lost. It is 28.5 centimeters in width and 358.6 centimeters in length, is the first known overseas travelogue written by a Korean and contains information about the political, cultural and economic customs of India and central Asia at that time. The five Indian kingdoms in the work's title refer to West, East, North, South and Central India, but it also contains information about the Byzantine Empire (Greater Fu-lin), the Arabs, Persia and several Central Asian states."......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_ocheonchukguk_jeon

"His record is regarded as one of the most valuable works of travel literature in the world, along with Great Tang Records on the Western Regions written by the seventh century Chinese dharma master Xuanzang, The Travels of Marco Polo of the 13th century, and The Journey by the 14th-century Muslim traveler Ibn Batutta.".....http://www.worldheritagesite.org/tag.php?id=881

"Bamiyan Valley “A month later, Hyeocho arrives in Gandhara, where Buddhist art reached brilliant heights. He goes north from there, passing through Oddiyana, and then west, to Afghanistan. He visits Bamyan and then heads to Tokhara.” - Northeast Asian History Foundation

Mount Wutai “After completing his journey across India, Central Asia and China, Hyecho returned to Changan early in the eleventh month of 727. Thereafter, he devoted himself to scriptural study and translation along with his teacher. In the fifth month of 780 he entered nirvana at Qinyuan Puti Temple on Mount Wutai in China.” - Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea (CHA) Korean Heritage Summer Webzine 2011 (Vol.4.No.2)

Samarkand ..... It is also mentioned that Arab rulers turned ancient temples into mosques. “Only in Samarkand is there one monastery and monk, who does not know how to revere the “Three Jewels”. In these countries of the Hu people, both the beard and hair are cut. People like to wear white caps made of cotton.” – From the Diary of Hyecho

Lumbini “The Four Great Stupas of Central India – The third one is situated in Kapilavastu, the city where the Buddha was born. The Asoka tree is still there but the city is already ruined. There is a stupa but no monks or inhabitants. The city is situated at the northernmost part of the country. The forests are mostly deserted and there are many bandits on the road. It is very difficult for those on pilgrimage to go safely.” - From the diary of Hyecho

"Khorasan Tegin Shah" (= Tegin, King of the East), known in Chinese sources as Wusan teqin sa, was the second Turk Shahi on the throne of Kabul, succeeding his father Barha Tegin around or after 680 CE. The title "King of the East" may well be understood as a challenge aimed directly at the Umayyad caliph. The actual dominion stretched from Kabulistan to Gandhara and at times also included Zabulistan. Bactria, the land just north of the Hindu Kush, did not belong to his immediate sphere of rule.....The first Rutbil of Zabulistan fell already by 683 or 686/87 CE in a battle against the Arabs, after having been previously allied with them. Around 710 CE it appears that the Kabul Shah temporarily gained suzerainty over Zabulistan, and troops were recruited in Zabulistan for the mutual struggle against the Arabs....In 719/20 CE an embassy was sent by the Tegin of Jibin (Kabulistan) and the iltäbär of Zabulistan (Xieyu) to China to obtain confirmation of their thrones from the Tang emperor. The investiture decree signed by the emperor was sent by messenger back to Jibin and Zabulistan. During his journey through the lands south of the Hindu Kush in around 726 CE, the Korean pilgrim Huichao stayed for some time at the court of the Kabul Shah, who may well have been "Khorasan Tegin Shah". Huichao recorded that Kabul and Zabul were then ruled by Turkic kings, who were Buddhists, and that the King of Kabul was supposed to have been the uncle of the ruler of Zabul.".....http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase14?language=en

Click on the map to enlarge

"Phrom Ge-sar was the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE) "King of Khurasan'.......the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana..... in 739, Tegin Shah abdicated the throne of Gandhara in favour of his son, Fu-lin-chi-p'o (also known as Fromo Kesaro, the Bactrian form of his name).........this victory occurred during the Reign of Fromo Kesaro (739-746 AD) and may have contributed to his transformation in later historical tradition into the Tibetan national hero Phrom Ge-sar, whose figure still survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara...The ancient coins read in Bactrian script: "The Glory Increased! The Majestic Sovereign!".. The territory was defined by natural boundaries: the Hindu Kush mountain range ... Beyond the foothills north of Gandhara was the ancient region of Udayana...".

743 AD...."....the supremacy of the Umayyad caliph al-Mahdi and the true conquest of Kabul did not
take place until the end of the ninth century. ......An important recent discovery has provided a surprising insight into the events of this epoch. On the coins of some Arab governors, a Bactrian text overstruck on the rim has been discovered...... The reading of the text is as follows: (ppofio Kijaapo fiayo xoaSr/o
klSo /So xaz iicavo /opyo o<5o crao /3o oa/3ayo aro i /xo /Jo yaivSo ( Fromo Kesaro,
the Majestic Sovereign [is] who defeated the Arabs and laid a tax [on them]. Thus they sent
it.)...... These coins formed part of the tax paid by the Arabs to Fromo Kesaro and were over-
struck with a legend telling of his victory over them. Obviously, this event occurred during
the reign of Fromo Kesaro (739-746) and may have contributed to his transformation in
later historical tradition 44 into the Tibetan national hero Phrom Ge-sar, whose figure still
survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara."...... HistoryOfCivilizationsOfCentralAsia

"The success of the Turk Fromo Kesaro in overwhelming an intrusive Arab army, sometime between 739-745, may have formed the historic core behind the Gesar epic in Tibet. In the records of the earliest rulers of Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit, whose countries were later overrun by incursive Tibetans, royal ancestry is connected to the Bactrian Gesar."......Harmatta, J.; Litvinsky, B. A. (1999). "Tokharistan and Gandhara under Western Türk rule (650-750)". In Dani, Ahmad Hasan. History of civilizations of Central Asia 3. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 367–402. ISBN 978-81-208-1540-7. Retrieved 15 July 2011

"Vohra 1996, p. 217 writes that these coins with the title Fromo Kesaro appear to refer to the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE:Chinese:烏散特勤灑:MC:uo-sân d'ɘk-g'iɘn ṣai=*Horsān tegin šāhi 'Tegin, king of Khurasan'), ruler of the Second Turki Śāhi dynasty at Kapisa-Udyana, whose reign was between 738 and 745 C.E., and who is identified with the 'Frōm Kēsar' (拂菻罽婆: Fúlǐn jìpó:North Western Tang pfvyr-lḭum-kḭe-sâ) of the Tang shu. SeeHarmatta & Litvinsky 1999, pp. 376,380)."....Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore % Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D.". In Osmaston, Henry; Denwood, Philip. Recent research on Ladakh 4 & 5: proceedings of the fourth and fifth international colloquia on Ladakh. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–234. ISBN 978-81-208-1404-2. Retrieved 16 July 2011.

"The first Rutbil of Zabulistan had declared his independence from the Kingdom of Jibin (Kabulistan) after 680 CE. According to Arab and Chinese sources, he was an older brother of the king of Kabul "Khorasan Tegin Shah" ; after his ascension to the throne, they had a falling out and the first Rutbil founded his own kingdom in Zabul. Initially he must have secured the support of the Arabs. The title Rutbil corresponds to the Turkic iltäbär and is used in Arab sources to refer to the king of Zabulistan from that point on. The personal names of the various rulers are not known from written sources. The end of the Zabul kingdom, which together with Kabul stood at the fore of the long resistance against the Muslim conquerors, finally fell in 870 CE when the Arab general Yaqub bin Laith al-Saffar (r. 861–879 CE) conquered the entire Iranian East from Sistan and definitively defeated Zabul.".... THE RUTBILS OF ZABULISTAN AND THE "EMPEROR OF ROME".....http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase15?language=en

"The center of the Kingdom of Zabul lay in the city Ghazni, one of the three residences of the king. In the northeast it bordered on Kabulistan and in the northwest it reached into the central Hindu Kush (showcase 12). In the south it included at times the cities of Rakhwad (al-Rukhkhaj) and Bost (near Kandahar, South Afghanistan). In the west the border followed the Helmand River, and the Sulaiman Mountains constituted the eastern border.....The travel diary of the Chinese monk Xuanzang from the first half of the 7th century records that numerous Buddhist stupas supposedly built by the Indian Maurya ruler Asoka (268–232 BCE) existed in Zabul as well as several hundred Buddhist monasteries and several dozen Hindu temples. The temple of the Brahman god Zun was famous far outside the borders of the kingdom and drew thousands of pilgrims annually. When the Arab governor of Sistan, 'Abd al-Rahman bin Samurah, reached Zabul with his troops in 653/54 CE, his path led to the temple of Zun. To demonstrate the impotence of the pagan god against the Muslims, he hacked both arms off the golden statue and tore out its ruby eyes.".....http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase15?language=en

"Khorasan Tegin Shah" (= Tegin, King of the East), known in Chinese sources as Wusan teqin sa, was the second Turk Shahi on the throne of Kabul (showcases 12, 13), succeeding his father Barha Tegin around or after 680 CE. The title "King of the East" may well be understood as a challenge aimed directly at the Umayyad caliph. The actual dominion stretched from Kabulistan to Gandhara and at times also included Zabulistan. Bactria, the land just north of the Hindu Kush, did not belong to his immediate sphere of rule......Following "Khorasan Tegin Shah"'s ascension to power, a conflict within the royal family must have broken out that caused the older brother of the Kabul Shah to move to Zabulistan and establish his independence there. From then on, Arab sources refer to the ruler of Zabulistan as Rutbil (Turkic iltäbär). Faced with the threat of the Arabs, the two ruling houses remained in close contact and fought side by side against the Muslim enemy. The first Rutbil of Zabulistan fell already by 683 or 686/87 CE in a battle against the Arabs, after having been previously allied with them. Around 710 CE it appears that the Kabul Shah temporarily gained suzerainty over Zabulistan, and troops were recruited in Zabulistan for the mutual struggle against the Arabs.....In 719/20 CE an embassy was sent by the Tegin of Jibin (Kabulistan) and the iltäbär of Zabulistan (Xieyu) to China to obtain confirmation of their thrones from the Tang emperor. The investiture decree signed by the emperor was sent by messenger back to Jibin and Zabulistan. During his journey through the lands south of the Hindu Kush in around 726 CE, the Korean pilgrim Huichao stayed for some time at the court of the Kabul Shah, who may well have been "Khorasan Tegin Shah". Huichao recorded that Kabul and Zabul were then ruled by Turkic kings, who were Buddhists, and that the King of Kabul was supposed to have been the uncle of the ruler of Zabul."....http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase14?language=en

The Vedas...."The wool of the Gandharis is referred to in the Rigveda. The Gandharas and their king figure prominently as strong allies of the Kurus against the Pandavas in the Mahabharata war. The Gandharas were a furious people, well-trained in the art of war. According to Puranic traditions, this Janapada was founded by Gandhara, son of Aruddha, a descendant of Yayati. The princes of this country are said to have come from the line of Druhyu who was a famous king of the Rigvedic period. The river Indus watered the lands of Gandhara. Taksashila and Pushkalavati, the two cities of this Mahajanapada, are said to have been named after Taksa and Pushkara, the two sons of Bharata, a prince of Ayodhya. According to Vayu Purana (II.36.107), the Gandharas were destroyed by Pramiti (aka Kalika) at the end of Kaliyuga. Pāṇini mentioned both the Vedic form Gandhari as well as the later form Gandhara in his Ashtadhyayi. The Gandhara kingdom sometimes also included Kashmira. Hecataeus of Miletus (549-468) refers to Kaspapyros (Kasyapura i.e. Kashmira) as Gandharic city. According to Gandhara Jataka, at one time, Gandhara formed a part of the kingdom of Kashmir."

"The Jataka also gives another name Chandahara for Gandhara. Gandhara Mahajanapada of Buddhist traditions included territories of east Afghanistan, and north-west of the Panjab (modern districts of Peshawar (Purushapura) and Rawalpindi). Its capital was Takshasila (Prakrit Taxila). The Taxila University was a renowned center of learning in ancient times, where scholars from all over the world came to seek higher education. Pāṇini, the Indian genius of grammar and Kautiliya are the world renowned products of Taxila University. King Pukkusati or Pushkarasarin of Gandhara in the middle of the sixth century BC was the contemporary of king Bimbisara of Magadha. Gandhara was located on the grand northern high road (Uttarapatha) and was a centre of international commercial activities. It was an important channel of communication with ancient Iran and Central Asia. According to one school of scholars, the Gandharas and Kambojas were cognate people. It is also contended that the Kurus, Kambojas, Gandharas and Bahlikas were cognate people and all had Iranian affinities. According to Dr T. L. Shah, the Gandhara and Kamboja were nothing but two provinces of one empire and were located coterminously, hence influencing each other's language. Naturally, they may have once been a cognate people. Gandhara was often linked politically with the neighboring regions of Kashmir and Kamboja."

"Zhang Qian (2nd Century BCE) He was an imperial envoy to the outside world in the 2nd century BC, during the time of the Han Dynasty who traveled along the Silk Road......An-si [Parthia or Persia] may be several thousand li west of the Ta-yue-chi. The people live in fixed abodes and are give to agriculture; their fields yield rice and wheat; and they make wine of grapes. Their cities and towns are like those of Ta-yuan. Several hundred small and large cities belong to it. The territory is several thousand li square; it is a yery large country and is close to the K'ui-shui [Oxus]. Their market folk and merchants travel in carts and boats to the neighboring countries perhaps several thousand li distant. They make coins of silver; the coins resemble their king's face. Upon the death of a king the coins are changed for others on which the new king's face is represented.".....http://mrgoethals.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/5/4/16542680/world_history_lesson_20_-_afro-eurasian_trade_patterns_before_600_ce_primary_sources.pdf

"Phrom Ge-sar was the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE) "King of Khurasan'.......the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana..... in 739, Tegin Shah abdicated the throne of Gandhara in favour of his son, Fu-lin-chi-p'o (also known as Fromo Kesaro, the Bactrian form of his name).........this victory occurred during the Reign of Fromo Kesaro (739-746 AD) and may have contributed to his transformation in later historical tradition into the Tibetan national hero Phrom Ge-sar, whose figure still survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara..... The territory was defined by natural boundaries: the Hindu Kush mountain range ... Beyond the foothills north of Gandhara was the ancient region of Udayana...".

**************************

Greek Coins; Bactria, found in India. Diodotos I as Satrap in the name of Antiochos II of Syria, 256 BC, Gold Stater (8.52 grams; 18 mm.), die-axis 6 o'clock. ...Ovs. Bust of Diodotos facing to right, wearing taenia, an ancient soft insignificant striking fault on the head, but without the regular test-cut, surrounded by a border of dots. .....Rev. Zeus standing left, with agis draped over left arm, and hurling thunderbolt in right hand. Greek legen: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY Of the King Antioxos. Eagle standing to left at feet, wreath above. Surrounded by a border of dots. Very fine. From a recent found AD 2001, about 30 coins found in Bihar, India. It is claimed, contained a number of examples of this rarity but few without obverse gash. ".....http://www.thaiprivatehand.com/INDO-02E.HTM

Diodotus, the governor of the thousand cities of Bactria (Latin: "Theodotus, mille urbium Bactrianarum praefectus"), defected and proclaimed himself king; all the other people of the Orient followed his example and seceded from the Macedonians. (Justin, XLI,4)
The new kingdom, highly urbanized and considered as one of the richest of the Orient (opulentissimum illud mille urbium Bactrianum imperium "The extremely prosperous empire of the thousand cities of Bactria" Justin, XLI,1), was to further grow in power and engage into territorial expansion to the east and the west......
"At the heart of the Greek or Roman inspiration of Gandhara art lies the fact that its first two patrons were Alexander and Diodotus-I (Asoka)....".....http://divineabodenews.com/tag/buddhism/

Thursday, July 25, 2013

"When we asked (Trungpa) about what meaning Gesar had in terms of the Shambhala teachings, Rinpoche exclaimed: “Gesar is the vanguard of Shambhala.” (It should be noted that in other contexts, the Vidyadhara indicated that the Shambhala terma had originated with the Rigden kings, Shiwa Ökar, or Gesar of Ling.).....http://nalandatranslation.org/projects/articles/gesar-supplication/

"Tazig: appears to signify Persia. 13 days horseback ride from Ling, at a place called Memoyu Thang." (David-Neel: Gesar: 1981..pg 239).....(at 20 miles per day it was about 260 miles from Ling to Persia)

"The success of the Turk Fromo Kesaro in overwhelming an intrusive Arab army, sometime between 739-745, may have formed the historic core behind the Gesar epic in Tibet. In the records of the earliest rulers of Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit, whose countries were later overrun by incursive Tibetans, royal ancestry is connected to the Bactrian Gesar."......Harmatta, J.; Litvinsky, B. A. (1999). "Tokharistan and Gandhara under Western Türk rule (650-750)". In Dani, Ahmad Hasan. History of civilizations of Central Asia 3. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 367–402. ISBN 978-81-208-1540-7.......Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore % Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D.". In Osmaston, Henry; Denwood, Philip. Recent research on Ladakh 4 & 5: proceedings of the fourth and fifth international colloquia on Ladakh. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–234. ISBN 978-81-208-1404-2. .

Click on the map to enlarge

"........"the Four Sons of Heaven, the rulers of the four great countries of the Asiatic world: China, India, Iran, Throm in the north with King Gesar." (Stein:1972, pg280...Stein Aurel M. 1929. On Alexander's Track to the Indus: Personal Narrative of Explorations on the North - west Frontier of India. London. Reprint: New York, Benjamin Blom, 1972.)...

"...Numismatic evidence and some accounts speak of a Bactrian ruler Phrom-kesar, specifically in the Turkish dynasty in Gandhāra, which was ruled by a Turkish Phrom-kesar ("Caesar of Rome"), who was father-in-law of the king of Khotan, around the middle of the 8th century CE......Vohra 1996, pp. 216–17 writes that Gesar is mentioned in a Khotan text, the Tibetan Li-yul-lun-bstan-pa, ("Prophecy of the Li Country") of the 9th-10th century, and Phrom long identified with a country northeast of Yarkand. Recent opinion identifies the land either with the Turkish Küūsen or the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana. Gesar may be either someone of Turkish stock or a non-Tibetan dynastic name. The Khotan king Vijaya Sangrama's consort Hu-rod-ga (Hu-rong-ga) was Phrom Gesar's daughter. The Padma-thang-yig records a Tibetan army subduing Gesar, something also mentioned in the Rygal-po'i-bka'i-than-yig ("Pronouncements concerning Kings").".....Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore % Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D.". In Osmaston, Henry; Denwood, Philip. Recent research on Ladakh 4 & 5: proceedings of the fourth and fifth international colloquia on Ladakh. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–234. ISBN 978-81-208-1404-2. Retrieved 16 July 2011.

743 AD...."....the supremacy of the Umayyad caliph al-Mahdi and the true conquest of Kabul did not
take place until the end of the ninth century. ......An important recent discovery has provided a surprising insight into the events of this epoch. On the coins of some Arab governors, a Bactrian text overstruck on the rim has been discovered...... The reading of the text is as follows: (ppofio Kijaapo fiayo xoaSr/o
klSo /So xaz iicavo /opyo o<5o crao /3o oa/3ayo aro i /xo /Jo yaivSo ( Fromo Kesaro,
the Majestic Sovereign [is] who defeated the Arabs and laid a tax [on them]. Thus they sent
it.)...... These coins formed part of the tax paid by the Arabs to Fromo Kesaro and were over-
struck with a legend telling of his victory over them. Obviously, this event occurred during
the reign of Fromo Kesaro (739-746) and may have contributed to his transformation in
later historical tradition 44 into the Tibetan national hero Phrom Ge-sar, whose figure still
survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara."...... HistoryOfCivilizationsOfCentralAsia

Numismatic evidence[Vohra, 1996] and some accounts speak of a Bactrian ruler Phrom-kesar,[Samuel, Geoffrey, 2005] specifically in the Turkish dynasty in Gandhāra, which was ruled by a Turkish Phrom-kesar ("Caesar of Rome"),[Martin 2011] who was father-in-law of the king of Khotan, around the middle of the 8th century CE.[Maconi 2004][Vohra 1996]...In early Bön sources, Phrom-kesar is always a place name, and never refers, as it does later, to a ruler.[23]....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_King_Gesar

Numismatic evidence....Vohra 1996, p. 217 writes that these coins with the title Fromo Kesaro appear to refer to the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE:Chinese:烏散特勤灑:MC:uo-sân d'ɘk-g'iɘn ṣai=*Horsān tegin šāhi 'Tegin, king of Khurasan'), ruler of the Second Turki Śāhi dynasty at Kapisa-Udyana, whose reign was between 738 and 745 C.E., and who is identified with the 'Frōm Kēsar' (拂菻罽婆: Fúlǐn jìpó:North Western Tang pfvyr-lḭum-kḭe-sâ) of the Tang shu. SeeHarmatta & Litvinsky 1999, pp. 376,380)....Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore % Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D.". In Osmaston, Henry; Denwood, Philip. Recent research on Ladakh 4 & 5: proceedings of the fourth and fifth international colloquia on Ladakh. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–234. ISBN 978-81-208-1404-2. Retrieved 16 July 2011.

King of Khotan.....Vohra 1996, pp. 216–17 writes that Gesar is mentioned in a Khotan text, the Tibetan Li-yul-lun-bstan-pa, ("Prophecy of the Li Country") of the 9th-10th century, and Phrom long identified with a country northeast of Yarkand. Recent opinion identifies the land either with the Turkish Küūsen or the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana. Gesar may be either someone of Turkish stock or a non-Tibetan dynastic name. The Khotan king Vijaya Sangrama's consort Hu-rod-ga (Hu-rong-ga) was Phrom Gesar's daughter. The Padma-thang-yig records a Tibetan army subduing Gesar, something also mentioned in the Rygal-po'i-bka'i-than-yig ("Pronouncements concerning Kings")......Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore % Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D.".

"...Coins and Tamgas connected with Gesar Certain emissions of coins bearing the title Fromo Kesaro have been identified with the successor of Sahi Tegin.."...Osmaston, Henry, and Philip Denwood, eds.1995. Recent Research on Ladakh 4 & 5. Proceedings of the Fourth and Fifth International Colloquia on Ladakh. Bristol 1989 & London 1992. London: SOAS Studies. ISBN 0 7286 0241 5. 429 pages. Available from the Publications Department, SOAS. Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, U.K.

Fromo Kesaro........"One year later, in 739, Tegin Shah abdicated the throne of Gandhara in favour of his son, Fu-lin-chi-p'o (also known as Fromo Kesaro, the Bactrian form of his name)......The Coins reads in Bactrian script: "The Glory Increased! The Majestic Sovereign!"...this victory occurred during the Reign of Fromo Kesaro (739-746 AD) and may have contributed to his transformation in later historical tradition into the Tibetan national hero Phrom Ge-sar, whose figure still survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara."......History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations....edited by Ahmad Hasan Dan

Fromo Kesaro....." “Who is Gesar?” and “Where is Gesar?” or perhaps “Where is From Gesar (Phrom Ge-sar)?”.....I do believe the Tibetan evidence for Phrom Ge-sar is very likely to prove relevant to Fromo Kesaro as found in some coin inscriptions...One fairly early academic discussion somehow at least moderately relevant to the problem of Fromo Kesaro / Phrom Ge-sar is in Bailey’s article, at p. 427. Bailey considers the idea that a Khotanese name/title rrispurä kheysarä, ‘Prince Kheysara,’ really has ‘Caesar’ behind it. And he mentions the Phrom Ge-sar of Tibetan documents. He notices in this connection kesarî (maned one, lion) and kesara (filament of a flower) as two Sanskrit words that were borrowed into Khotanese, getting slightly altered in the process. He finally concludes that the personal name Caesar is not to be found in Khotanese.....have a look at the discussion of Phrom and Ge-sar by F.W. Thomas in Tibetan Literary Texts and Documents Concerning Chinese Turkestan, Part III (London 1955), pp. 79-82. It’s still worth considering what he had to say there. The late Ron Emmerick’s Tibetan Texts Concerning Khotan (p. 69) has a translation from a Tanjur text that does something very exceptional in calling ’Phrom Ge-sar a ‘king’ (rgyal-po). This King From Gesar's daughter Huronga (Hu-rong-ga) married the Khotanese king and had two daughters who became nuns......TIBETO-LOGIC
MORE-OR-LESS MONTHLY MUSINGS ON MAINLY ANTIQUARIAN TOPICS OF TIBET-RELATED INTEREST......http://tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2010/02/from-gesar-place-this-time.html

"... The territory was defined by natural boundaries: the Hindu Kush mountain range ... Beyond the foothills north of Gandhara was the ancient region of Udayana...The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art By Kurt A. Behrendt, 2007

"Gesar of Ling is considered the world's last living epic. In primarily oral traditions, specific people (such as the bards of the ancient Celts) are charged with the duty of remembering and narrating the legend. In the case of the Tibetan epic, it requires someone who can recall a song that is 25 times the length of The Iliad of ancient Greece. ..... there is no single version of King Gesar's deeds. The Gesar repertoire, known throughout the vast Himalayan region, contains material that could fill 37 volumes. And, like the Homeric epics, it existed in the oral tradition for generations before it was ever written down. Aspiring balladeers would learn the words and melody by heart from the lips of an experienced, older singer...... there are a number of different versions, but interestingly the Ladakhi one (West Tibetan cultural area) and the Khampa (East Tibetan) are quite similar. One translation, Gessar Khan, a West Tibet version (first appeared in German in 1836) makes reference to Persian non-Buddhist deities. The "Foreward" also mentions the Kalmyk Little Gesser (Riga, 1804.) ....The name, Gesar, is evocative of the Latin Caesar, from which we get the German Kaiser, and also the Russian word for "king," Tsar.) Noted mythologist Joseph Campbell (1968, 107) also had this impression, but pointed out that, although some think the Gesar material refers to "the glories that were Rome," there is also a commonality in the pre-Islamic Persian word for "sovereignty" which is sahr. ....Gesar is said to have ruled the land of Phrom from a city called Rum. ".......http://www.khandro.net/langnlit_Gesar.htm

'Hor' was an ethnonym that originally referred to the Uyghurs, and from the 12th century CE to the Mongols…..….Stein, Rolf A. (1959, pp. 188–9). Recherches sur l'épopée et le Barde au Tibet. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Vohra 1996, pp. 216–17 writes that Gesar is mentioned in a Khotan text, the Tibetan Li-yul-lun-bstan-pa, ("Prophecy of the Li Country") of the 9th-10th century, and Phrom long identified with a country northeast of Yarkand. Recent opinion identifies the land either with the Turkish Küūsen or the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana. Gesar may be either someone of Turkish stock or a non-Tibetan dynastic name. The Khotan king Vijaya Sangrama's consort Hu-rod-ga (Hu-rong-ga) was Phrom Gesar's daughter. The Padma-thang-yig records a Tibetan army subduing Gesar, something also mentioned in the Rygal-po'i-bka'i-than-yig ("Pronouncements concerning Kings")……Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore % Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D.". In Osmaston, Henry; Denwood, Philip. Recent research on Ladakh 4 & 5: proceedings of the fourth and fifth international colloquia on Ladakh. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–234. ISBN 978-81-208-1404-2. Retrieved 16 July 2011

Hor gling g.yul 'gyed ("The War of Hor and Gling"). Meanwhile the three demon-kings of Hor, led by Gur dkar, overcome Gling and abduct 'Brug mo, who becomes the mother of Gur dkar's child. Ge sar is eventually aroused from his drugged state, returns to Gling and leads a successful campaign to defeat Hor, which becomes an ally of Gling……http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/genres/genres-book.php#!book=/studies-in-genres/b21/dn2/

The 18 fortresses (rdzong chen bco brgyad). Gesar sets out to conquer the 18 great forts (Tib.: rdzong). They are listed differently according to singers and texts, but these battles nearly always include Tajik (Tib.: Stag-gzig) and Khache Muslim adversaries.

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Click on the map to enlarge.....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/art-in-iran-vi-pre-islamic-eastern-iran-and-central-asia

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

"Nālandā was a religious center of learning from the fifth century AD to 1197 AD..... Nalanda flourished between the reign of the Śakrāditya (whose identity is uncertain and who might have been either Kumara Gupta I or Kumara Gupta II) and 1197 AD, supported by patronage from the Hindu Gupta rulers as well as Buddhist emperors like Harsha and later emperors from the Pala Empire.....The curriculum at Nalanda consisted not only of Hinayana and Mahayana philosophy but also medicine, logic, astrology, and many other subjects as well......When I-Tsing, Chinese Buddhist, visited Nalanda in 673-695, there were eight colleges, having as many as 300 rooms.....At its peak, the university attracted scholars and students from as far away as Tibet, China, Greece, and Persia. Nalanda was ransacked and destroyed by an army under Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193. The great library of Nalanda University was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the invaders set fire to it, ransacked and destroyed the monasteries, and drove the monks from the site."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda

"Nava Vihara, Navbahar (also known as Nava Vihara: Sanskrit: "new temple" or "new monastery) was a Buddhist stupa or monastery near the ancient city of Balkh in northern Afghanistan. The temple may have been an old Zoroastrian fire-temple.... in the Greater Khorasan province of the Persian Empire (now in present-day Afghanistan). ......it was the center of higher Buddhist study for all of Central Asia, comparable to Nalanda Monastery in central northern India..... it was one of the main centers of pilgrimage along the Silk Route from China to India.....Xuanzang, during visit in 630, noted that there were in Balkh about a hundred Buddhist monasteries, with 30,000 monks, and that there was a large number of stupas, and other religious monuments and that Buddhism was flourishing in Bactria.....

Śakrāditya, of the Gupta Dynasty...." the founding of the great university of Nalanda dates back to the reign of the Gupta king Kumaragupta I, who ruled from 415 to 455 and is referred to as Shakraditya (Śakrāditya).....By the time the Chinese pilgrim Hsüan-tsang visited in the seventh century, entrance to the university could only be gained by those who passed the admission test put to them by learned gatekeepers. Hsüan-tsang stayed for a period of about six years, during which he studied Yogachara philosophy. I-tsing (635-713), another Chinese pilgrim, who visited after Hsüan-tsang and stayed for about ten years, reports that there were about 3500 monks in residence at that time.".....http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Nalanda_University

General location of the Nava Vihara monastery, Balkh, Afhganistan.....
Lat 36.7649 Long 66.903